Sergio Perez came into the Austrian Grand Prix weekend in need of a strong result. He may have already secured a new Red Bull contract, but he’ll still be desperate to get out of his current rut.
Perez’s new deal, which was made official before the Canadian GP earlier this month, lasts two years on the surface. But digging a little deeper, he’ll have to meet certain performance goals in 2025 to trigger the second season – a 1+1 arrangement.
And while the Mexican is no longer facing an immediate risk of losing his seat, his performances this term will set the tone heading into next year. Perez will be all too aware of this reality, having come into 2024 needing to address his team’s doubts after his 2023 campaign unravelled.
The 34-year-old started the year in solid fashion with three runner-up finishes and four podiums in five races. But ever since a Q2 exit at the Emilia Romagna GP in May, he’s completely lost form.
Across the last four events, he’s collected just eight points and failed to qualify higher than P8. That run included back-to-back DNFs in Monaco and Canada after accidents.
Having started out as Max Verstappen’s nearest challenger, he’s now fallen to fifth in the championship. His teammate (219) has very nearly doubled his points tally of 111.
Martin Brundle baffled by Sergio Perez pitlane exit at Austrian Grand Prix
Perez will start P7 for the Sprint in Austria – his best performance in any qualifying session since Miami. While it represents a marginal improvement, it will still fall short of Red Bull’s expectations.
Indeed, he’ll start behind Lewis Hamilton even though the Mercedes driver made a clear mistake on his SQ3 lap. The problem for Perez was his preparation.
When the world feed cut to onboard footage of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle spotted an issue for Perez. Leclerc had to reboot his car in the pitlane, but Perez was still crawling towards the exit as the clock ticked down.
By the time he and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly finally joined the track, their outlaps had been completely compromised. Sure enough, Perez crossed the line with a 1:06.008 – 1.3 seconds off pole and four-tenths slower than he’d managed in SQ2 on slower medium tyres.
“There are two drivers at the top of the hill – I think it was Perez and Gasly,” Brundle said. “They’re going to have to really get on with it to have a chance of a flying lap. What are on Earth are they doing?”
The moment that nearly cost Perez a new Red Bull contract
If Perez had started the year with the kind of performances he’s producing now, then it almost goes without saying that Red Bull wouldn’t have offered him an extension. While Christian Horner won’t expect him to challenge the all-conquering Verstappen, he’s not playing an effective support role either.
Perez’s supporters may point out this was a procedural issue rather than a simple lack of performance. While that is true, stringing together a clean weekend and cooperating effectively with the team is part of the task for an elite F1 driver.
As it turns out, the former McLaren man was millimetres away from being let go by Red Bull. One journalist says the team would have axed him had he hit Verstappen when he locked up at the start of the Miami GP.
Perez came perilously close to taking the Dutchman out, but just about got away with it. Helmut Marko has told him that he can no longer ‘afford’ to show any weaknesses, but it increasingly looks as if the progress made by Red Bull’s competitors has exposed his inherent limitations.
The post 'What on Earth?': Martin Brundle can't get his head around what Sergio Perez did in Sprint qualifying appeared first on F1 Oversteer.